New to DVD

Friday

Jul 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

new to dvd

new to dvd

Ginger and Rosa: Two coming-of-age stories, one political, one emotional. Ginger (Elle Fanning) and Rosa (Alice Englert) grow up in a London weary from shortages of food, living space and cheer. Who could have guessed Swinging London and the Beatles were on the way? Ginger becomes completely swept up in the Ban the Bomb movement and, in her youthful fatalism, becomes convinced the Earth is on the brink of nuclear annihilation. With Alessandro Nivola as Ginger's dad, Christina Hendricks as her mom, Annette Bening as a leftist friend, and Timothy Spall and Oliver Platt as a friendly, avuncular gay couple. HHH

TOP RENTALS

42: Here's a long overdue, serious big-screen biopic about one of the most important American pioneers of the 20th century. But this is more a ground-rule double than a grand slam. From the soundtrack to the speechifying to the subject material to the script's somber tone, "42" has the uniform of an Oscar contender, but it falls short of Hall of Fame status. Jackie Robinson was great; "42" is good. HHH — Richard Roeper

Side Effects: Rooney Mara stars as an edgy young woman named Emily whose husband (Channing Tatum) has been released after four years in prison for insider trading. Things don't go smoothly for Emily, and she's referred to a psychiatrist (Jude Law), who prescribes a new drug named Ablixa. The drug causes some alarming behavior as director Steven Soderbergh draws us into a vortex of whispers that something haunted and possessed is going on. HHH½

JACK THE GIANT SLAYER: Surprise! Director Bryan Singer, a first-rate cast and a stellar team of screenwriters, set designers and special-effects wizards have dusted off an old and never particularly compelling fairy tale and have given us a great-looking thrill ride. It's filled with neat touches, from the casting of Ewan McGregor as a knight in shining armor to an epilogue that's just flat-out cool. Even for those who didn't think they'd give a fee, a fi, a fo or a fum about this movie, it's a rousing, entertaining adventure. HHH½ — Richard Roeper

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK: Pat (Bradley Cooper) is confident and upbeat for a man just released from a mental hospital and under a restraining order from his wife. He's determined to surprise everyone by moving ever onward and upward. What stage of bipolar disorder would you guess he's in? His parents (Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver) are well-meaning but dubious. A prickly neighborhood widow (Jennifer Lawrence) wants to sleep with him and is offended that he's interested only because she's in touch with his ex-wife. HHH½

THE CALL: Halle Berry takes a 911 call at work that turns out to be deeply, shockingly personal. No review.

BULLET TO THE HEAD: Directed by the veteran Walter Hill, this ersatz buddy film is filled with cheesy stop-motion zooms, rapid-cut fight scenes with insanely loud sound effects for every bone-cracking punch, racially insensitive one-liners, window-dressing female characters and wall-to-wall carnage. It's the kind of brainless action movie Sylvester Stallone would have starred in circa 1985. That it stars a Stallone who's pushing 70 is just weird. HH — Richard Roeper

CLOUD ATLAS: One of the most ambitious films ever made. Over a period of centuries, six stories wend their way toward visionary truths. The same actors appear in different roles, playing characters of different races, genders and ages. Some are not even human, but fabricants. The acting and makeup were so effective that often I had no idea if I was looking at Tom Hanks, Halle Berry or Jim Broadbent. It's probably futile to try to extract a logical meaning from the film. HHHH

QUARTET: A sweet, sentimental, predictable story set in a luxurious British retirement home for actors and opera singers. First-time director Dustin Hoffman has his heart in the right place and loves these characters. His screen is filled with legends (Tom Courtenay, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly, Gwyneth Jones). But much is unlikely, including the theory that a gala on Verdi's birthday could raise enough cash to save the manor. HH½

Oz the Great and Powerful: Like "The Phantom Menace" trilogy, "Oz the Great and Powerful" precedes a beloved classic on the fictional timeline, but makes full use of modern-day technology, which means everything's grander and more spectacular. Director Sam Raimi and his army of special-effects wizards have created a visually stunning film that makes good use of 3-D, at least in the first hour or so. The film finally breaks free of its beautiful but artificial trappings and becomes a story with heart in the final act. Thing is, we know Oz and its denizens are destined for a far greater adventure a little ways down the Yellow Brick Road. HH½ — Richard Roeper

Incredible Burt Wonderstone: This absurdist, magic-themed buddy movie is a Will Ferrell sports comedy without Will Ferrell and without the sports. In plot and tone, it's two parts lunatic comedy and one part shameless sentimentality with a dash of romance thrown in. A movie satirizing magicians — even rock 'n' roll hipster magicians — is only slightly more cutting edge than a movie mocking mimes. But this is also one dark and wickedly funny comedy, with a great return to form by Jim Carrey opposite Steve Carell in the title role. HHH — Richard Roeper

EVIL DEAD: Not a strict remake of Sam Raimi's hugely influential 1981 horror classic, but it does include the basic framework and some visual nods to the original. On its own, it's an irredeemable, sadistic torture chamber reveling in the bloody, cringe-inducing deaths of some of the stupidest people ever to spend a rainy night in a remote cabin in the woods. I love horror films that truly shock, scare and provoke. But after 30 years of this stuff, I'm bored to death and sick to death of movies that seem to have one goal: How can we gross out the audience by torturing nearly every major character? H — Richard Roeper

56 Up: Starting in 1964 with "7 Up," this remarkable undertaking has visited most of the original group of 14 British children every seven years, as they grow older and their lives seem to unspool in fast-forward. Director Michael Apted, who has guided the series since "14 Up," has grown to know his subjects almost like family members. This eighth film, edited skillfully so viewers don't need to have seen the previous films, continues one of the noblest undertakings in the history of the cinema. HHHH

Snitch: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson delivers the best work of his career playing a guy who goes undercover to save his teenage son from a drug rap. Though "Snitch" almost dares you to ask some pointed questions, it puts some big exclamation points on a couple of messages about certain drug laws in need of a thorough re-examination. HHH— Richard Roeper

ADMISSION: In this disappointingly flat comedy, Portia Nathan (Tina Fey), a Princeton admissions counselor, runs into her past. No doubt there's a film to be made about the intense pressure to get into a top-tier college, but that seems more like dramatic fodder than the launching point for a great comedy. Then there's a problem with Portia, who's basically likable and then not so likable, and then we're asked to be happy for her at the end, but she hasn't given us enough good reason. If there were an admissions test, we'd send Portia packing. HH — Richard Roeper

SPRING BREAKERS: Harmony Korine's homage to the annual spring experience is like a pervier cousin of "Girls Gone Wild." On other occasions, though, you feel as if you're experiencing raw, mad, avant-garde genius at work. The film challenges us to think about the hedonistic hell of that annual ritual, as it segues from party film to insane crime story. It's self-indulgent, it's funny, it's dark and it's always provocative. HHH½ — Richard Roeper

STOKER: The disturbingly good "Stoker" asks us to accept that some people can kill as easily as they can turn off a light, and that they may have been that way even since childhood. Director Park Chan-wook creates unbearable tension, sexual and otherwise, as a long-lost uncle smoothly inserts himself into the dynamic of a dysfunctional family. As he seduces the mother and her teenage daughter with very different approaches, we're not sure if the daughter is a damaged, exploited young woman, or if she's been waiting her whole life for someone to show up and validate her pitch-black soul. HHH½ — Richard Roeper

Stand Up Guys: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin were in the same gang, and after Pacino is released following a 28-year prison sentence, they unite for a long day and night as an implacable deadline approaches. Comedy, chase scenes, some tension and, above all, the acting. HHH½

HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS: Jeremy Renner as Hansel in the slightly altered story of Hansel and Gretel. No review.

WARM BODIES: He's undead, but his love lives on. More supernatural teenage romance, this time with zombies. No review.

Beautiful Creatures : Though not specifically conceived to fill the void left by the $2 billion "Twilight" franchise, comparisons are inevitable, as we're again presented with a story about a smart, serious, semi-loner high school student who falls for a mysterious newcomer with supernatural powers. It would all be pretty tedious, goth-youth nonsense if not for the considerable delights provided by a mostly veteran supporting cast of Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, Viola Davis and Emmy Rossum, who are all having great fun. If only that approach extended to the two young leads, who behave like typically sullen teenagers. HH½ — Richard Roeper

THE IMPOSSIBLE: The tsunami that devastated the Pacific Basin in the winter of 2004 remains one of the worst natural disasters in history. We were in Europe when it struck, and we sat mesmerized, watching the news on TV — again and again, that towering wall of water looming from the sea, tossing trucks, buses and its helpless victims aside. Surely this was a blow from hell. In this terrifying triumph of special effects, Juan Antonio Bayona's film becomes a powerful story of a family's cohesive strength. With Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor and Tom Holland. One of the best films of 2012. HHHH

MAMA: To the credit of director Andy Muschietti, his co-writing team and a first-rate cast, "Mama" succeeds in scaring the wits out of us and leaving some lingering, deeply creepy images, despite indulging in many horror-film clichés. Movies like "Mama" are thrill rides. We go to be scared and then laugh, scared and then laugh, scared and then shocked. And of course, there's almost always a little plot left over for a sequel. It's a ride horror fans would take again. HHH — Richard Roeper

BROKEN CITY: From a lurid and predictable plot, "Broken City" is the sworn enemy of subtle. It's a big, juicy, sometimes clunky, political crime thriller that plays like a 21st-century B-movie. It's also pretty trashy and sometimes stupid. But there's never a moment when you won't be entertained on one level or another. Thanks to a great cast — Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg and terrific supporting players Barry Pepper, Kyle Chandler, Jeffrey Wright and Griffin Dunne — you'll have a good time even when the script is breaking bad. HHH — Richard Roeper

THE HOBBITT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY: Stuffed with Hollywood's latest technology, Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" prelude has some eye candy that truly dazzles and some that utterly distracts. It's also overstuffed with prologues, flashbacks and long, boring councils among dwarves, wizards and elves as Jackson tries to mine enough story out of J.R.R. Tolkien's mythology to build another trilogy. In nearly three hours, Tolkien's brisk story of intrepid little hobbit Bilbo Baggins is drawn out and diluted by dispensable trimmings better left for DVD extras. HH½ — David Germain, AP

SAFE HAVEN: Directed by the versatile Lasse Hallstrom and starring the attractive duo of Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough, "Safe Haven" is yet another entry in the Nicholas Sparks book-to-movie factory that has given us "The Notebook," "Message in a Bottle," "Dear John," etc. For 90 percent of the journey, it's a solid movie for those in the mood for some good old-fashioned, great-looking-couple-gets-caught-in-the-rain romance. Then something happens at the very end that'll make you question the film's sanity. H½ — Richard Roeper

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